Overview: “Enhancing Opportunities for Women’s Enterprises” (EOWE) is a 5 year programme (2016-2020) funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of The Netherlands as part of the Funding Leadership and Opportunities for Women (FLOW) funding stream. The programme is implemented in collaboration with local partners in four central provinces of Vietnam (Quang Binh, Binh Dinh, Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan), and 12 Arid and Semi-Arid Counties in Kenya.

The programme aims to advance women’s economic participation and self-reliance in Kenya and Vietnam by creating a conducive environment for female entrepreneurship as a vehicle for change. The programme focuses on enhancing the implementation of gender-sensitive policies, while tackling socio-economic and gender barriers at local levels to improve the enabling environment for Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE). In addition, the programme supports women to enter business, as well as those already in businesses, to increase their profitability and viability so as to address inequalities in the economic arena. The FLOW/EOWE programme will build the capacity of local actors to be central pillars of this change.

In the summer of 2018, halfway through the implementation of the programme, SNV will review the progress of the EOWE programme. To be able to report to the indicators agreed upon with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, SNV work with MDRI to conduct the data collection for the mid-term review.